Ask Andrina

The sums are adding up for a financial expert from Silsden who set up her own business with support from Bradford Council’s Kickstart enterprise programme. Bookkeeper Andrina Bealey-Kay is continuing to grow her client list after setting up Ask Andrina in June 2011.

The mother-of-two specialises in offering a flexible ‘pay-as-you-go’ service to small businesses, including bank reconciliation, managing cash flow, financial forecasting and overseeing VAT and tax returns, as well as bookkeeping. She is the latest success story from Bradford Council’s Kickstart programme which in the past five years has supported more than 1,500 new businesses and helped to create more than 5,000 jobs.

Andrina, who has more than 20 years experience as a bookkeeper, worked with Kickstart enterprise coach Candy Squire-Watt who gave advice about business planning, marketing and networking. Andrina said: “It has gone really well so far. One of the main areas Candy highlighted was the importance of selling me. “When you are self-employed, you are the business so I’ve been networking a lot to get my name out there and build my confidence in promoting myself. “That’s made a huge difference and I wouldn’t have done as well without the advice and support from Kickstart. “I mainly work withsmaller businesseswhich want help withfinances but don’twant the burden ofhiring an accountant or an extramember of staff. “You feel more appreciated by businesses when you’re working for yourself. As well as providing a service that helps them, they understand and respect what being self employed involves.”

Coun David Green, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration and Economy, said: “It is great to see Andrina is doing so well and benefiting from the advice and guidance provided by Kickstart. “The programme has helped people start their own businesses in a huge variety of sectors – from retail to mechanics to financial professionals like Andrina. The only limit is people’s ambitions.”